Can anyone help me fix my computer?

[Cynette]

My dilemma... I got a very bad virus over the weekend and in the process of carefully following everyone's advice on decontaminating my computer, I have destroyed my ability to get into Windows. I think I am missing a file called something like winlogon.exe.

Anyway I have this wonderful son who has been helping me and now he is stumped as well. And now he is in the heavy part of his work schedule and can't help me until Monday. I'm starting to get tremors from the withdrawal!

He has loaded something called Ubuntu. So he can see my files. (And so I have internet access, but that is all) And he has found the offending file. But it is "read only" and he has been unable to secure the permission to copy the file and put it back where it belongs. At least that is how he describes it to me.

So...if you have any idea what I am talking about and what he is talking about and think you could "talk" me through the process for replacing my missing file, let me know!

He just wants to "UNIX" me, but I fear I am too set in my ways to give up my Windows mentality and that I will have to wait too long for him to get it done to a point where I will understand what he has done to me. Help me please!

[WillZZZ]

The core root of your problem is that a virus infected your windows installation and partition and has corrupted some critical files needed to boot. winlogon.exe is an core component in 2000/XP controlling the Windows username/password authentication and if that is corrupted your boot fails. Your son installed or your running off the liveCD Ubuntu which is a Linux distribution and it's helpful in recovering files from Windows partitions. The reason Ubuntu is showing as "read-only" is because the default NTFS drivers in Ubuntu are read-only. You have 2 options of fixing your Windows installation:
1. Get really technically in-depth and fix the Windows installation manually by replacing the files and seeing what's up (there are many ways to do this and I can list many off the top of my head but it gets really complex.) (and this eventually doesn't fix all the problems as the virus is still dormant in your corrupted Windows installation's files and registry and that's another story/step.)
2. Use Ubuntu, copy off all your important files onto a flash disk/drive or burn the files or send it to another computer over the network AND then reformat the computer (starting fresh which is a good thing when it comes to Windows sometimes.) and reinstall Windows and then copy back/reinstall your files.

Depending on your skills, time and complexity I say for your situation do #2. You will have a fresh start in terms of the OS (Windows is clean with no viruses, spyware, malware, etc.) and you can install anti-virus, anti-spyware and whatnot and hopefully practice some safe computing skills (updating the definitions of those apps, etc.)

I kinda agree with your son as I would want to try to get my parents to run Linux but its not for everyone the the learning curve is sometimes steep for those that don't understand computers on a deeper level. Anyways those are my suggestions. Hope your computer is fixed ASAP.

[Michelle Celio]

Back up your files while booted into Ubuntu.


When you bought the computer it should of came with a Windows disk, if it was either 2000 or XP (I have no idea about Vista) boot up to this CD and try doing a repair install (do not re-install, install, create / delete partitions). This will replace any critical files used by windows with the original file used when Windows was first installed and may fix the problem (I'm not sure if winlogon.exe is one of them)

[Andrew Blair]

KillBox. Windows program, might work in Ubuntu. If not, you can install the drive as a slave in another computer, with KillBox installed, to kill the offending file. It *will* kill it, running or not.

But, be absolutely sure you have all the bad files. If there is a hidden program somewhere else, you might end up with new stuff being downloaded all the time, randomly, even if you kill one of the files. Makes things very difficult and frustrating. I spent a day and a half hunting down one nasty trojan that kept installing new malware and viruses on the computer every few hours. Unfortunately, it was a workstation, and I wasn't real keen on backing up and reinstalling everything. So, I went on a huge registry hunt, which took forever. Not fun.

So, if you aren't perfectly sure about the problem, and you can bear to lose a little bit, plus reinstall everything, it might save time to do just as said above: Backup files you need, wipe the rest, and reinstall.

[Cynette]

Oh my.

It sounds like I should just be very patient and trust my son to take care of the computer when he gets the time.

I suppose I don't have anything really difficult or exceptionally large to copy to another computer or cd's. And it could be worse, I at least have an opportunity to move or copy the files I want.

Its a good thing there are lots of fireworks and holiday parties this weekend to help me through my withdrawal...sigh.

[divergentdave]

You DON'T need to reinstall windows at all, so don't panic, and don't do anything drastic. I have used a Linux LiveCD before, and on that distro too, my windows drive was mounted as read-only to start with. So tell your son that he'll need to re-mount the windows drive as read-write so he can delete the bad file that he found. This can probably be done by right-clicking on the drive from the file manager, but if not, google around for the text-based command you need to do so.

Best of luck.